Let’s call a spade a spade. The GOP is engaging in political correctness and cancel culture.
Censoring free speech by attaching the label “anti-Semitic” to any policy of the Israeli state is idiotic. But it is Trump’s idiot genius at work again. Brand the other side as “racist” when they want to have a real dialogue about race and culture. Brand them as anti-semites when they want to discuss policy.
It’s the Roy Cohn double-speak education he excelled at learning.
Russia launched a completely unprovoked assault on Ukraine to extinguish its sovereignty. Israel was responding to an absolutely insane act of mass murder by Hamas that was intended to be, and was correctly interpreted as, an existential attack on Israel’s existence. One can critique Israel’s response but it’s arguing in bad faith to compare the reactions of cold hearted imperialists waging a war of aggression with that of a people responding to a pogrom and mass hostage taking.
Russia also has nuclear weapons. We shouldn’t have restrained Ukraine, but we did so out of an understandable if overblown fear of escalation. Hamas does not have nuclear weapons, and Hezbollah was exposed early on as a paper tiger. Arguing as if our different approaches here are simply moral or legal questions again verges on bad faith.
As to the broader point, it’s pretty sad to be making a “oh no, Trump is bad, but whatabout Biden” after prominent Arab Americans and “friends of the Palestinians” did everything they could to get Trump elected, and succeeded. Trump one key Arab areas in Michigan because of Jill Stein voters and Trump voters “for Palestine”. I’d hazard a guess none of the loudmouths who disrupted our universities and provided endless footage for Fox to rile up their base voted for the hated Kamala, because “both parties are the same, man”.
Well they aren’t. Not on foreign policy, or anything else, so keep taking shots even after the fact at Biden all you want. Those type of shots already did the damage they are going to do. People who made them own the Trump era just as much as the Evangelicals do.
I’ve never seen in my lifetime a more alienating political movement than the Hamas apologists (active or implicit) in the US, and they played a non-trivial role in getting Trump elected.
Lots of people around the world are going to suffer because of that election. I will save my tears for the Ukrainians forced to bend the knee after a heroic struggle in part due to the antics of Arab Americans before I shed a single one for the Palestinians. I will save my tears for the Haitians and Salvadorans about to be deported over anyone in Dearborn.
“At least they won’t take us for granted anymore”. Perhaps — but if they are smart, the democrats should just write off the Hamas fellow travelers instead,
Fair points. I agree with you that there is a world of difference between Trump and Biden. However, you note: "One can critique Israel’s response but it’s arguing in bad faith to compare the reactions of cold hearted imperialists waging a war of aggression with that of a people responding to a pogrom and mass hostage taking." Trouble is that the Palestinian side says the same of Israel -- that it is engaging in a pogrom and population cleansing. So, at the very least, it was incumbent on the Biden administration to make sure that Israel doesn't prove that true as it sent Israel arms and support.
"Trouble is that the Palestinian side says the same of Israel -- that it is engaging in a pogrom and population cleansing.
Except that it (Israel) is clearly NOT engaging in a pogrom and population cleansing. To use those words (and "genocide" which is often also used) is a complete and utter 1984ing of what those words mean.
A lot depends on how one defines "dignity" for Palestinians.
If Palestinian Arabs hadn't been rioting in the 1920s against Jews returning from Exile (and buying their own land), there would have been no "Nakba" -- and by now they'd be citizens of Israel (likely with no "Nation-State" law) -- and (like current Israeli Arabs) they'd be the envy of the entire Arab world. Instead, they continue to demand the creation of a "Palestine" whose raison d'etre is "Jews not welcome here" -- and (worse still), those in Gaza elected (and have since failed to overthrow) Hamas.
"Genocide"? All that needs to happen is for Hamas to surrender, and the destruction will stop. The inhabitants of Gaza would arguably be better off under Israeli rule than they've been under Hamas, and if they no longer pose a threat, the Israeli right wing will lose a key rationale for its support.
So much for "dignity."
OTOH, the way Trump has gone about deporting Mahmoud Khalil is bad for Israel, and bad for American Jews.
I fear (as a Jewish American) that among many of my fellow US citizens, this will cast Israel and its supporters as enemies of our Constitution and of free speech, and as instigators of a police state on behalf of a foreign power.
Under those circumstances, it wouldn't take much for a pro-Palestinian US administration (or Trump, if he has a spat with Bibi) to start demanding loyalty oaths -- and (for those who won't renounce "Zionist sympathies") to start deporting Jews.
I am against the illegal settlements in non-Israeli land and I disagree with Trump's lifting of sanctions on them. I don't agree with his proposal to relocate the Palestinians but do recognise that there have been instances in the recent past of land / territories / people that have been de-recognised / carved up / displaced when it became clear that without taking action, violence would be the inevitable outcome (Prussia being dismantled and the forced relocations of when India and Pakistan were divided) so this is not as outrageous as it first appears to be.
I do find using the UNRWA and the ICC actions as examples of "Trump's Attacks on the Human Rights of Palestinians Are Next Level" and "dignity of Palestinians" as completely laughable. The UNRWA has been credibly shown to be involved and complicit in Hamas workings. The ICC is a politicised disgrace that is always anti-Israel (as is most of the UN, for that matter).
As for this: "Supporters of liberal democracy ought to be outraged by the assault on Palestinian rights in the Middle East and the United States and on international law and institutions.", how can you completely disregard the context of the situation? The Palestinians are a people who have repeatedly, for multiple decades, launched violent attacks on Israeli citizens, refused any two-state solution presented to them, elected a government that is intent on wiping out Jews and have used billions and billions in international aid to go to tunnels and violent means in a land that has was completely devoid of Jews and Israelis since 2005.
You might remember an event called World War II. Substitute "Germans" and / or "Japanese" for "Palestinians" and see how outrageous your comments are.
Let's say you are right that supporters of designated terrorists should be ejected from the country. But should the government have to show that someone is in fact such a supporter or can it just pick up anyone it wants, label them as a terrorist supporter, disappear them, and deport them? If not, then you should revise your opinion about what Trump is doing. Or just openly say you want America to turn into Putin Land.
He is a legal alien resident. According to the rule of law he then he should be arrested and detained by the FBI and not ICE. He should be held in jail (maybe) until his court date. Your "slam dunk" evidence needs to be shown and proven and not prosecuted on Xwitter. He should be tried by a jury and THEN IF found guilty of aiding a terrorist organization sentenced, imprisoned and upon release deported.
He simply is NOT legally subject to deportation without due process. Period. Even IF he was ALLEGEDLY shipping weapons to terrorists.
THAT is how the rule of law works in the US. What Trump is doing is lawless. At least until the Supreme Court gives him permission and makes it lawful or until the 1st, 4th and 14th Amendments have been repealed.
Let’s call a spade a spade. The GOP is engaging in political correctness and cancel culture.
Censoring free speech by attaching the label “anti-Semitic” to any policy of the Israeli state is idiotic. But it is Trump’s idiot genius at work again. Brand the other side as “racist” when they want to have a real dialogue about race and culture. Brand them as anti-semites when they want to discuss policy.
It’s the Roy Cohn double-speak education he excelled at learning.
This is not convincing, at all.
Russia launched a completely unprovoked assault on Ukraine to extinguish its sovereignty. Israel was responding to an absolutely insane act of mass murder by Hamas that was intended to be, and was correctly interpreted as, an existential attack on Israel’s existence. One can critique Israel’s response but it’s arguing in bad faith to compare the reactions of cold hearted imperialists waging a war of aggression with that of a people responding to a pogrom and mass hostage taking.
Russia also has nuclear weapons. We shouldn’t have restrained Ukraine, but we did so out of an understandable if overblown fear of escalation. Hamas does not have nuclear weapons, and Hezbollah was exposed early on as a paper tiger. Arguing as if our different approaches here are simply moral or legal questions again verges on bad faith.
As to the broader point, it’s pretty sad to be making a “oh no, Trump is bad, but whatabout Biden” after prominent Arab Americans and “friends of the Palestinians” did everything they could to get Trump elected, and succeeded. Trump one key Arab areas in Michigan because of Jill Stein voters and Trump voters “for Palestine”. I’d hazard a guess none of the loudmouths who disrupted our universities and provided endless footage for Fox to rile up their base voted for the hated Kamala, because “both parties are the same, man”.
Well they aren’t. Not on foreign policy, or anything else, so keep taking shots even after the fact at Biden all you want. Those type of shots already did the damage they are going to do. People who made them own the Trump era just as much as the Evangelicals do.
I’ve never seen in my lifetime a more alienating political movement than the Hamas apologists (active or implicit) in the US, and they played a non-trivial role in getting Trump elected.
Lots of people around the world are going to suffer because of that election. I will save my tears for the Ukrainians forced to bend the knee after a heroic struggle in part due to the antics of Arab Americans before I shed a single one for the Palestinians. I will save my tears for the Haitians and Salvadorans about to be deported over anyone in Dearborn.
“At least they won’t take us for granted anymore”. Perhaps — but if they are smart, the democrats should just write off the Hamas fellow travelers instead,
Fair points. I agree with you that there is a world of difference between Trump and Biden. However, you note: "One can critique Israel’s response but it’s arguing in bad faith to compare the reactions of cold hearted imperialists waging a war of aggression with that of a people responding to a pogrom and mass hostage taking." Trouble is that the Palestinian side says the same of Israel -- that it is engaging in a pogrom and population cleansing. So, at the very least, it was incumbent on the Biden administration to make sure that Israel doesn't prove that true as it sent Israel arms and support.
"Trouble is that the Palestinian side says the same of Israel -- that it is engaging in a pogrom and population cleansing.
Except that it (Israel) is clearly NOT engaging in a pogrom and population cleansing. To use those words (and "genocide" which is often also used) is a complete and utter 1984ing of what those words mean.
I'm considering retiring in Gaza. It should be delightful after a light ethnic cleansing.
All kidding aside, I'd like to ask the "Arab Americans for Peace" how voting for Trump is working out for them.
A lot depends on how one defines "dignity" for Palestinians.
If Palestinian Arabs hadn't been rioting in the 1920s against Jews returning from Exile (and buying their own land), there would have been no "Nakba" -- and by now they'd be citizens of Israel (likely with no "Nation-State" law) -- and (like current Israeli Arabs) they'd be the envy of the entire Arab world. Instead, they continue to demand the creation of a "Palestine" whose raison d'etre is "Jews not welcome here" -- and (worse still), those in Gaza elected (and have since failed to overthrow) Hamas.
"Genocide"? All that needs to happen is for Hamas to surrender, and the destruction will stop. The inhabitants of Gaza would arguably be better off under Israeli rule than they've been under Hamas, and if they no longer pose a threat, the Israeli right wing will lose a key rationale for its support.
So much for "dignity."
OTOH, the way Trump has gone about deporting Mahmoud Khalil is bad for Israel, and bad for American Jews.
I fear (as a Jewish American) that among many of my fellow US citizens, this will cast Israel and its supporters as enemies of our Constitution and of free speech, and as instigators of a police state on behalf of a foreign power.
Under those circumstances, it wouldn't take much for a pro-Palestinian US administration (or Trump, if he has a spat with Bibi) to start demanding loyalty oaths -- and (for those who won't renounce "Zionist sympathies") to start deporting Jews.
What goes around comes around.
Thanks, Donald -- but no thanks!
I am against the illegal settlements in non-Israeli land and I disagree with Trump's lifting of sanctions on them. I don't agree with his proposal to relocate the Palestinians but do recognise that there have been instances in the recent past of land / territories / people that have been de-recognised / carved up / displaced when it became clear that without taking action, violence would be the inevitable outcome (Prussia being dismantled and the forced relocations of when India and Pakistan were divided) so this is not as outrageous as it first appears to be.
I do find using the UNRWA and the ICC actions as examples of "Trump's Attacks on the Human Rights of Palestinians Are Next Level" and "dignity of Palestinians" as completely laughable. The UNRWA has been credibly shown to be involved and complicit in Hamas workings. The ICC is a politicised disgrace that is always anti-Israel (as is most of the UN, for that matter).
As for this: "Supporters of liberal democracy ought to be outraged by the assault on Palestinian rights in the Middle East and the United States and on international law and institutions.", how can you completely disregard the context of the situation? The Palestinians are a people who have repeatedly, for multiple decades, launched violent attacks on Israeli citizens, refused any two-state solution presented to them, elected a government that is intent on wiping out Jews and have used billions and billions in international aid to go to tunnels and violent means in a land that has was completely devoid of Jews and Israelis since 2005.
You might remember an event called World War II. Substitute "Germans" and / or "Japanese" for "Palestinians" and see how outrageous your comments are.
Let's say you are right that supporters of designated terrorists should be ejected from the country. But should the government have to show that someone is in fact such a supporter or can it just pick up anyone it wants, label them as a terrorist supporter, disappear them, and deport them? If not, then you should revise your opinion about what Trump is doing. Or just openly say you want America to turn into Putin Land.
He is a legal alien resident. According to the rule of law he then he should be arrested and detained by the FBI and not ICE. He should be held in jail (maybe) until his court date. Your "slam dunk" evidence needs to be shown and proven and not prosecuted on Xwitter. He should be tried by a jury and THEN IF found guilty of aiding a terrorist organization sentenced, imprisoned and upon release deported.
He simply is NOT legally subject to deportation without due process. Period. Even IF he was ALLEGEDLY shipping weapons to terrorists.
THAT is how the rule of law works in the US. What Trump is doing is lawless. At least until the Supreme Court gives him permission and makes it lawful or until the 1st, 4th and 14th Amendments have been repealed.